Pulse width modulation (PWM) signals often are used in display systems for precise control of display backlights or display screens. In such systems, the duty of a PWM control signal can change frequently, such as when the backlighting changes concurrent with displayed video content. Relatively large and abrupt changes in the duty of the PWM control signal result in relatively large and abrupt changes in light intensity, which may be detected as flicker by a viewer or may otherwise cause discomfort to a viewer. One conventional approach to reduce this effect is to implement a PWM generator with a relatively high duty resolution such that a one least-significant-bit (LSB) change in the PWM duty of the PWM generator produces a sufficiently small step change in the light intensity and thus no abrupt change will be detected by the viewer. However, the implementation of sufficiently high resolution control for PWM duty control typically requires significantly higher clocking frequencies and severely constrained timing requirements, thereby resulting in increased cost, power consumption, and silicon area for conventional high resolution implementations.